Peer Mentorship Program

Enhanced Patient Engagement to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes among Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)

The Need

Many patients with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) are challenged with the affects kidney failure has on their physical and mental health. Peer mentoring programs can connect patients to the experiences of similarly situated patients leading to a mutually supportive and engaged community of patients empowered with coping skills and strategies to deal with the challenges of CKD; knowledge to make optimal and informed health choices; and resources to choose the renal replacement treatment that’s right for them.

The Program

The AAKP, Emory University and Kaiser Permanente Georgia have teamed up to develop a Peer Mentorship Program aimed at increasing patient engagement and improving CKD patients’ well-being by exposing them to proven coping strategies for living well with CKD and effective strategies for choosing optimal renal replacement options.

This project paired Atlanta-based CKD and ESRD patients with trained AAKP mentors (in Georgia and across the U.S) for a 6-month, one-on-one peer mentoring project.  At this time, mentor-mentee engagements with this project have finished.  The project team is currently analyzing data and will present results on this webpage. 

Projected Program Outcomes
  • increase the number of trained Mentors;
  • increase the percentage of CKD patients who are engaged with a Mentor;
  • increase the percentage of vulnerable patients that receive education;
  • improve knowledge of renal replacement therapy choices and coping strategies among patients with an emphasis on African-American CKD/ESRD patients;
  • implement and dissemination proven interventions that support patient coping strategies and understanding of renal replacement treatment options.

Download the AAKP “Coping, Living, and Thriving with Kidney Disease” brochure created from this project.

Watch the AAKP 2021 National Patient Meeting presentation, “AAKP Peer Mentorship Project: Coping with Kidney Disease and Choosing (or Changing to) a Treatment Right for You.”

Speaker: Janice Lea, MD, MSc, FASN; AAKP Board Member, Executive Committee; Professor of Medicine at Emory University; Clinical Director of Nephrology and the Chief Medical Director, Emory Dialysis; Principal Investigator, “The Enhanced Patient Engagement to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes among Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Project”

Moderator: Cecilia Santana, AAKP Ambassador and Stakeholder, “Enhanced Patient Engagement to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes among CKD Project,” Mentor, and Transplant Recipient

The Enhanced Patient Engagement to Improve Patient-Centered Outcomes among Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) Project is supported by a Eugene Washington Engagement Award (AAKP-EADI-14537) from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI).